|
“As
manager of a large rental company, the most common
complaint I get from customers is that ‘so-and-so
never returns my phone calls.’ We have a very
dependable voice mail system in place, so I know the
calls have been received,” a Californian told me.
Ah,
voice mail. As originally intended, this omnipresent
office servant was supposed to pick up calls when an
employee was busy with a client or away from the desk.
But in many rental companies, that isn’t the way it
has turned out.
Instead,
voice mail is wrongly used to pick up all messages,
whether the employee is available for the call or not.
Many employees express some pride at the fact that they
are never “interrupted” during the day by phone
calls. The attitude is, “I’m busy. If you want to
contact me, you’ll just have to wait.”
That
wait can be interminable from the client’s
perspective. At random times during the day — or week
— the employee listens to the messages (or, more
often, simply scans them to see who called) and then
selects a few lucky callers for return phone calls. Not
surprisingly, many ‰ Page 84 From Page 82 messages don’t
get such a return call — these are usually the
messages from people who seem to be asking non-urgent
questions, people who nag and people whose calls require
a bit of work. And if they phone back in a huff, so
what? They’ll just be speaking to voice mail.
In
one rental yard I visited recently, the senior manager
had given up entirely on using voice mail to distribute
important in-house messages such as meeting
announcements. “My people just don’t check their
voice mail as they should,” he said. “I harp on it
at every meeting, but they always have excuses. I end up
walking around putting Post-it notes on people’s desk
lamps where they can’t miss them. What a terrible way
to communicate!”
An
employee who sits by while voice mail fields all his
calls is avoiding an important professional
responsibility. “If I ignore messages from my problem
people,” the employee reasons, “they will probably
go away.”
In
some cases, perhaps. But frustrated callers also go
straight to the boss or, just as often, to their circle
of friends and professional associates to tell what
lousy customer service they have experienced.
The
crowning irony to this hide-behind-my-voice mail scheme
is that the worst offenders are also those who complain
loudly at the water cooler, “You wouldn’t believe
how many voice mails I have to contend with. It seems
there are more and more each day.” No doubt — calls
that are not returned do have a way of stacking up.
Reducing
dozens of voice mails each day to a handful of
manageable messages involves four related policies that
any manager can enforce:
Policy
1 Unless you’re with a client or pressed by a real
work emergency, pick up your phone when it rings. If you
can’t deal with the caller’s request or other issue
at the time, tell him/her when you will call back and
then stick to that commitment.
Policy
2 Clear your voice mail at least four times a day. Good
times are just before a mid-morning break, just before
lunch, at mid-afternoon, and a half hour or so before
closing.
Policy
3 Don’t shuffle calls from problem clients to the
bottom of your call-back list. Get those calls over
with, politely and professionally.
Many
popular voice mail systems have a “box full”
function that indicates when no additional messages can
be left for a particular voice mail recipient. The
message may sound familiar: “Your voice mail box is
full. You cannot receive additional voice mail messages
until you delete or save the existing messages.”
The
client hears a slightly different message: “I’m
sorry, but the voice mail box you’ve contacted is full
and cannot receive additional messages at this time.
Please try your call later.” (The customer’s blood
pressure usually begins to peak at this point.)
Employees
who abuse voice mail are understandably eager to shut
off this “box full” function or at least increase
the capacity of their voice mail box to hold dozens of
messages before the “box full” alarm goes off.
But
here’s where shrewd managers can exert their control
over those who are hiding behind their voice mail. With
just a little technical assistance (or none at all with
many systems) the capacity function of the “box full”
feature can be set down to, let’s say, 10 messages
from the typical 20 or more messages preset by the
system.
Once
that change is made, a manager can insist upon Policy 4:
It is a sign of poor customer service to let your voice
mail box become full. Avoid this poor reflection on you
and the rental company by responding to voice mail
messages often during the day.”
There’s
a part of each of us that would like to while away the
workday undisturbed by phone calls. Admittedly, our
concentration on tasks is temporarily disrupted by such
calls.
But
shielding ourselves behind voice mail is akin to locking
our office doors and posting a sign, “Slip your
message under the door. I’ll decide if I want to
contact you.” That ivory tower would last no more than
a New York minute in most companies — and similar
self-isolation by means of voice mail in rental
companies should be no more tolerable.
Your
voice mail message for callers probably sounds something
like this: “I’m either on another call or away from
my desk. Please leave your number and a brief message
and I’ll return your call promptly.”
Is
that the truth or just more business boilerplate hiding
a very different reality? For many employees, a more
truthful message (though not recommended!) would be, “I’m
not on another call. In fact, I’m sitting at my desk
doing exactly what I want while ignoring your call.
Leave your message and number. If I deign to hear it at
some time in the future, I’ll decide whether to call
you back.”
No matter how tempted you may be, don’t indulge this
darkside dream. What customer wouldn’t be fried by
such a message, stated or implied?
Resolve
that your workplace achieves at least the 60/40 balance
recommended by customer satisfaction experts: 60 percent
of calls get through the first time to the real,
breathing employee being called; 40 percent get routed
to voice mail for call-back within an hour or two.
That
balance keeps customers happy while also making the best
use — the best intended use — of voice mail. |
